British co-operative movement
The origins of modern co-operatives owe their beginnings not simply to the extreme poverty faced by many in the 18th and 19th centuries, but also to the rapid social changes of urbanisation, the rising food prices which resulted from the marketisation of the economy and from the lack of political representation for the working class during this period.
These factors led to a number of social changes including an increased focus on mutual businesses (notably co-operatives) in public discourse during this time and also to events such as the Swing Riots of 1830.
Often the more successful co-ops were established around the trades which were experiencing the largest impact from the rapid industrialisation such as mining and weaving.
During the boom times, when work in the factories was more fruitful, co-operative societies also had difficulty encouraging people to retain their membership owing to perception of its limited financial benefits.
Many of these large co-operative societies have businesses in a number of sectors, are led by their values principles and owned by their members.
In the case of The Co-operative Group, the society has over four million members and 3,600 trading outlets for its family of business which comprises groceries, insurance, funerals, legal services and health.
By 1890 the CWS had established significant branches in Leeds, Blackburn, Bristol, Nottingham and Huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits (Manchester), Boots (Leicester), Soap (Durham) and textiles (Batley).
This rapid expansion continued so that by the outbreak of World War I the CWS had major offices in the United States, Denmark, Australia and a tea plantation in India.
Many, fiercely local, societies saw the CWS as a valuable supplier but did not want to exclusively purchase produce from a single source.
In order to increase loyalty to the CWS, they started to assist the local retail societies in more ways than simply as a wholesaler.
Though this led to some improvements the movement (including the CWS) remained largely unreformed with its grocery market share continuing its downward trend.
Thirdly the time was a period of notable inflation and a strong pound which led to a wave of cheap imported goods – this devastated much of the UKs manufacturing businesses (including the CWS).
By the 1980s it became clear that the trend in the retail sector was towards large (often out of town) supermarkets and hypermarkets with hundreds of them appearing across the UK.
[4] By the start of the 1990s the co-operative movement's share of the UK grocery market had declined to the point where the entire business model was under question.
This was at a time where many building societies were demutualising as many of the public preferred the short-term financial gain of the windfall payment over the perceived lack of benefits from the mutual model.
The shock that Mr Regan's bid sent through the co-operative movement has been attributed with sowing the seeds for the merger of the CRS and the CWS in 1999.
[14] The merger took two years to complete and the launch of the newly combined business, named The Co-operative Group, was timed with the release of the 2001 Co-operative Commission report, chaired by John Monks, which proposed a strategy of modernisation which focused on improving store design and building a consistent branding whilst also driving for efficiency savings to make the food business more competitive - the similarity in conclusions between the 1919, 1958 and 2001 reports highlights the distinct lack of progress within the movement during this time.
The 2001 report also highlighted the need to market what it called 'The Co-operative Advantage' which suggested that commercial success would provide the funding for the social goals of the movement which (when the public saw a tangible benefit to their own lives) would provide a competitive advantage to the co-op which would further its commercial success - a virtuous cycle.
These changes to the business are largely credited with the successes in profitability and the achievement in social goals which improved in the years after the Co-operative Commission report.
Since 1993 the CRTG had been working to switch the role of the CWS from 'selling to' to 'buying for' co-operative societies as a way of maximising the economies of scale to become more competitive to the major supermarkets.
Many leaders in the movement began to appreciate that this 'me too' approach to retailing was not working, for example expanding into hypermarkets after Tesco and Sainsbury's had already developed a dominant position but without the resources to compete on price.
As an attempt to differentiate itself from its larger competitors The Co-operative Bank had introduced an ethical policy in 1992 and this, along with its technical innovation, was well received with customers.
The CWS worked with The Fairtrade Foundation to help introduce the Fairtrade Mark in the UK, it was an early adopter of the RSPCA's 'Freedom Foods' animal welfare certification, it introduced the first supermarket line of 'environmentally friendly' household products and the first range of toiletries certified by Cruelty Free International as not tested on animals.
The Phone Co-op was established in 1998 and provides broadband, fixed line and mobile telecoms services to consumers and organisations.
Today the business is part of the Midcounties Co-operative and provides landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including broadband.
They use any leftover money to provide better services to members or share evenly among savings accounts (a dividend)[43] In Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), credit unions are regulated by the Financial Services Authority who set certain standard and approve the people who hold important positions within a credit union.
Though John Lewis is a public limited company, its shares are held in trust on behalf of the employees rather than being traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Each employee (referred to as "partner" within John Lewis) has a say in how the company is run and each year they are awarded an equal percentage share of the profits based on their salary.
Since 1979 some two dozen community co-operatives have been established in remote areas in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and have carried on not only retailing but manufacturing and service industries, improving both incomes and the quality of life.
The think tank and consultancy Mutuo was originally developed by the party and now operates independently across the wider mutual sector in the United Kingdom.
